A Snapshot: Behind the Scenes of Sarah Greenwood’s Sherlock Holmes

This January, BAFTA winning, 3 times Oscar nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood invites you to step inside blockbuster movies Sherlock Holmes 1 and 2. A Snapshot at the Arts Gallery will open up to reveal an amazing insight into the creative process behind major Hollywood films, as Greenwood recreates an exact replica of her Sherlock Holmes 2 art department, revealing her research material, scripts, notebooks, laptop, drawings, models, illustrations and storyboards from the film, following the creative process through from concept to final cut.

One of the world’s foremost production designers, Sarah Greenwood has created the silver screen worlds inhabited in Pride and Prejudice, Hanna, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Starter For Ten, The Soloist, Atonement and Sherlock Holmes 1 and 2. Sarah Greenwood graduated from Theatre Design at Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts London, before embarking on her hugely successful career in art direction.

A Snapshot reveals a cross section of the epic process of designing a feature film, illustrating the complexity and collaboration that go into creating an entire fictional universe. This exhibition will take visitors on an insiders’ journey into the heart of Sherlock Holmes 2, with its mysterious Victorian London setting.

Entering the gallery, visitors will be immersed into a lifelike ‘set’ of Sherlock Holmes art department, complete with Greenwood’s Art Director’s desk and the creative chaos of a live film studio. Taking a seat in the Director’s chair, visitors will get an insight into the craft of the Art Director and the complex art and artifice of the worlds they create. Visitors can freely rifle through the scripts, drawings, schedules, notebooks, models and even Greenwood’s computer. On the walls around the ‘set’ will be examples of work from Sherlock Holmes illustrations, references, storyboards, photographs and clips from the final released film starring Jude Law and Robert Downey Jnr.

Sarah reveals “What visitors will see in this exhibition is not the finished piece of work that everyone sees in the cinema, but a reveals a unique glimpse behind the screen into the craft and design that goes into it. Designing for film has the potential to encompass everything; this exhibition is a moment in that process.

I feel very strongly that after my initial conception of the story the collaboration of the team is the key to creating an amazing looking film, the talent and knowledge that is brought together for those few short months, to work in a constant state of crisis and to then produce what we do is nothing short of incredible.

From this confusion comes the clarity of the end product. But to achieve that clarity is a constant process of refinement and elimination, searching for a path through to best illustrate a clear coherent visual concept for an entire film. When it succeeds the art that is produced can be breathtaking and that can only be seen in the final film. ”

Watch the trailer for Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows at http://bit.ly/uvt5FI